Writing in Foreign Policy, Viruben Nandakumar highlights that despite a change in figureheads, Sri Lanka’s military maintains an inflated role in the running of the state. “Not only must Sri Lanka’s protesters heed that call and refocus their efforts toward dismantling the militarization of the state, but so too must the international community”, he writes. The piece details not only the genocidal violence of the Sri Lankan military but also the continued impunity with war criminals such as Sunil Ratnayake being pardoned, despite his involvement in the slaughter of Tamil civilians. This...
Sri Lanka’s former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa is a war criminal accused of overseeing some of the most heinous atrocities of the 21 st century. Under his command Sri Lankan troops unleashed an offensive that saw widespread violations of international law and left as many as 169,796 Tamils unaccounted for. Out of all the countries in the world, Singapore has a particular duty to hold him to account. It must do so before he flees.
In Jaffna, walls are papered with posters calling for the arrest of exiled Sri Lankan president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, for the crime of genocide. Men and women line up to sign petitions calling on Singapore to deliver justice for the atrocities they suffered and in remembrance of those they lost. Across the globe, they are joined in unison by a diaspora who refuse to forget the thousands of Tamils slaughtered under the command of the former president. Outside Singapore’s embassies Tamils cry out to Singapore to deliver them justice. For as long as Rajapaksa remains on the island without...
Gotabaya Rajapaksa won the 2019 presidential election. It is no secret that it has succeeded in instilling Islamophobia among the Sinhalese population. 6.9 million voters – mostly Sinhalese Buddhists – elected him. They celebrated the victory with loud cheers and by serving milk rice, saying that they have got a solid leader for the country. Following his win, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) led by Mahinda Rajapaksa won a landslide victory in the 2020 parliamentary elections, gaining a two-thirds majority. Mahinda became the Prime Minister and the Rajapaksa family ascended the throne...
Writing in the Caravan, Viruben Nandakumar details the worrying militarisation of Sri Lankan society and the influence Sri Lanka’s war crimes accused security forces continue to wield. “While the country’s political establishment and civil government face a crisis of legitimacy, the military seems poised to weather the turmoil with its considerable might intact or even enhanced relative to other centres of power,” he writes. Drawing on the scholarship of Rajesh Venugopal, Nandakumar details how an embrace of market reforms by the Jayawardene administration led to deepening inequality and...
Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis has given way to a mass anti-government movement. The movement often referred to as Aragalaya - the Sinhala word for “struggle” - started off vehemently demanding the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa for his role in destroying the island’s economy. After protesters stormed his residence, Rajapaksa fled to Singapore where he formally announced his resignation. Upon receiving the news, protesters gathered outside the presidential secretariat to celebrate the ousting of a president they once held as a saviour. The Aragalaya has overwhelmingly been characterized...
Writing in Just Security , Tasha Manoranjan, founder and a director of People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL) stresses that “accountability for atrocities against Tamils and curbing Sinhala Buddhist nationalism are key for the island’s future stability and prosperity”. In her article, she takes aim at Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism, which she describes as “the poisonous thread that links the anti-Tamil chauvinism underpinning every Sri Lankan institution” and “is the root cause of Sri Lanka’s present political and economic crises”. It is this nationalism that has “explains why, just...
Whilst many in the Sinhala South seem satisfied with the opportunity to have a new leader after the ousting of one that they had overwhelmingly voted for just two years prior; for Tamils in the North-East, the dismal choice of candidates is yet further proof that Colombo is incapable of reform.
Sri Lanka is in an economic crisis, and the blame is being laid squarely at the door of its president Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Last weekend, tens of thousands of protesters tore that door down and stormed his official residence. Since the beginning of this economic crisis, Sri Lankans have been quick to denounce his corruption and amassing of personal wealth. They picked apart his policies ranging from his tax cuts to his pledge to ban chemical fertilizers. Sri Lanka’s protestors, however, have been conspicuously silent about one of the state’s most significant policies that have brought the country to this predicament in the first place - the Sri Lankan military occupation of the Tamil North-East.
Whilst firecrackers were let off in Colombo to celebrate Rajapaksa’s resignation, he must not, however, be allowed to leave office without facing any consequences. The former defence secretary should be taken and tried at The Hague over his command responsibility for war crimes and genocide.